Design is just as important as the process

Didi Textiles - crafted out of local textile traditions - are designed for a decentralized production in the villages of Bangladesh where the quality of life and space is both humane and free.

In rural Bangladesh a woman gets one sari per year from her family on occasion of the main Muslim or Hindu festival. A man gets one lungi, which is a piece of cloth wrapped around as skirt. When the saris and lungis are worn out, they are traditionally recycled into blankets: about six layers of those cotton saris are fixed together with hundreds of stitches made by hand.

Over the years with everyday use, the surface layers of the blankets peel off and the hidden layers appear. The vibrant and incredible colourful textured surface is an imprint of its own little family cosmos. These textiles form the basis of this project.
In another recycling process through the excellent craftsmanship of many women around the villages of Rudrapur and Birgonj these fabrics are turned into clothes in contemporary design.

Learning from each other

Through the selling of Didi Textiles people will start valuing their own culture even more and continue the extraordinary textile culture in Bangladesh.

For our parts in the world there might be even more to learn: In a way the project can be seen as an attempt to turn the usual trade flow upside-down. Normally the Global North is producing it´s T-shirts in the Global South. Once worn out the clothes are sent back, often with the result of destroying local cultures and markets. With Didi textiles the worn-out clothes are sent in a high quality from the Global South to the North leaving us with the question how to value our everyday culture.

For us in the industrialized countries these textiles can be an inspiration and motivation towards the art of recycling and craftsmanship as well as strengthening the sensibility to discover the beauty in the used and ordinary.

Thanks for your support

We need you now to enhance self-empowerment of women and communities and to foster independence in the villages of Bangladesh.

You get a nice shirt or a pillow or a bag. At the same time you contribute to a good life for the women and children in Bangladesh and to a world that is a bit more fair and beautiful.

Note: Every single piece is unique. We will choose for you and we hope our intuition is guiding us right!
You will definitely be surprised.

To choose your Didi Shirt size check the graphic on the slideshow or visit our news!

Über die Initianten

The project is an initiative of the Bangladeshi NGO Dipshikha for rural development, Veronika Lena Lang who is a tailoring master as well as textile designer and the architecture Studio Anna Heringer with about 20 women in the villages Rudrapur and Birgonj.

We want to show an alternative textile production “made in Bangladesh” under happy conditions.
Sustainability = Beauty.